Emotional Literacy for Girls: Keana Shatteen’s Chicago Mentoring

Thanks to Keana Shatteen, middle school girls at Gen. George S. Patton School in Riverdale, Illinois are learning that big feelings don’t have to end in big blowups.

The monthly mentoring group, which included 27 girls at its first session, teaches participants to understand and relate to their emotions when stressed, as well as how to communicate clearly. The school has offered a similar group oriented at boys for three years, but nothing for girls until Shatteen arrived. For her, the work is also personal, she told the Chicago Tribune.

When Shatteen was 16, her mother died, leaving her with feelings of abandonment that her father’s struggle with alcoholism compounded. Years later, as her marriage ended, the wounds resurfaced. In 2019, she attempted suicide. “I didn’t know how to put words to my suffering,” she said. “We just know we’re in pain and want the pain to go away.”

In the aftermath of her trials, Shatteen found the 12-step program Emotions Anonymous, which eventually led her to professional therapists who helped her work through her trauma. “I learned how to forgive myself for any mistakes I had made, and to forgive my father and make amends for the mistakes he made,” she said.

Shatteen’s 18-year-old son has also fueled her recovery. “I really want to make sure he has a different world than we grew up in, where he can be honest, open, and embrace his vulnerability,” she said. Now, her work is giving young people the tools and knowledge she didn’t have growing up.

At the Patton School, that means giving girls the language she lacked — which interim principal Paula Brown hopes teaches them to talk through conflict instead of fighting or walking away from friendships. To teach the all-important skill, Shatteen helps the students role play real-life scenarios, like being excluded at the lunch table. The intent, Shatteen said, is to show that communication is “like a muscle; you have to exercise it.”

Each participating girl also gets a journal and a standing invitation to bring whatever she’s carrying into the room. “Youth want to be seen, they want to be heard,” Shatteen said. “I want to help them identify the emotional language to ask for the support they need.”